The Breakaway Cook

December 12, 2007

The ever-mutating combination of fraud and technology has loosed yet another scam upon the business world -- this time with a slant that's decidedly tailored for bookselling. John Evans, co-owner of Diesel, A Bookstore, located in Oakland and Malibu, California, shares an update from the front lines.

On Saturday, December 1, we were preparing for a day of holiday shopping at the bookstore and for a fantastic cookbook event with eight local cookbook authors. At 11:30 a.m., we received a phone call. The person on the other end said he was one of the scheduled authors and that he needed our help.

Explaining that his car had been stolen, he said that could rent a car but would need us to wire him $150 by Western Union. Further, he said that he would give us $400 when he arrived at the store, "for helping" him. I countered by suggesting that, if he were in the city, we could just pick him up, which would only take an hour or so. He explained, "I'm in L.A., and I locked my keys in my car, with all of my credit cards, and my computer with all the photos I have of my mother in it. I went to get something to open the car, and when I came back, there was just broken glass and my car was gone with everything in it." He sounded desperate, and a bit dramatic, both over-the-top and honestly anxious. It sounded strange though, calling us and not someone else when there was no way to make the event in any case.

I put him on hold and went to talk with a fellow bookseller, and, in the end, suggested that he just blow off the event. When he continued pleading, I told him I would have to discuss it with the bookseller in charge of store events when she arrived at the store. When my colleague heard the account of the call, she decided to call the sales rep of the house that published the title and have him handle it. In the end, the rep called the cell phone number the author had left, but the author didn't call back.

We set up for the event, removing the space for missing author, as he wouldn't be coming. Everything looked great for the event, and, at start time, in walked the author! We asked him what had happened, and he didn't know what we were talking about.

It wasn't him.

It was the "Nigerian Author Scam," the latest in an endlessly inventive series of attempts to hustle and shake down unwitting booksellers of their hard-earned cash.

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